It's no secret that Samsung and Apple are dominating the smartphone market. According to IDC's figures for Q1 2012, Samsung had a 29.1 percent share of the worldwide smartphone market while Apple was not far behind with 24.2 percent.

With Samsung and Apple together commanding over 50 percent of the smartphone market, you would expect for them to take home a healthy portion of profits as well. While this is true, according to Asymco, the disparity between the profits reaped by Samsung and Apple compared with the also-rans in this sector is astonishing.

[Source: Asymco]

According to Asymco, the pair accounts for 99 percent of worldwide mobile phone operating profit. Samsung is using its nearly 30 percent share of the smartphone market to obtain 26 percent of the profits.

However, the biggest winner is Apple, which is pulling in an estimated 73 percent of the profits from the mobile market. Apple's performance shouldn't come as a surprise to many considering that the company pulled in $11.6 billion in profits during the first quarter (fiscal Q2).

HTC barely made a blip with just 1 percent of operating profits. LG, Motorola, Nokia, RIM, and Sony have all posted losses with regards to their respective mobile phone divisions, so they don't even factor into this equation.

Samsung Galaxy S III

"Seen this way, the story isn’t so much that Apple 'took the profits from the incumbents'", stated Horace Dediu of Asymco. "Rather, it’s that Apple created a vast new pool of profits. And one need not look far to find out where they came from: operators. These profits were mostly carrier premiums for the iPhone 4S."

quote: 2. Apple is recordly profitable. Granted that profitability is heavily driven by: i. Exploitive labor contracts, which are rumored to be far worse than the industry average. ii. One of the most abusive records when it comes to exploiting loopholes for the purposes of tax evasion. iii. Nickel and diming customers with massive markups for things like extra RAM or a bit more NAND.

iii. Where have you been?? Overcharging for options has existed in the PC world since the dawn of PC time. Go to Dell, HP, etc.. And add to the base config's. The cost is MUCH more than if the same upgrade were purchased at newegg. On top of that, go buy a car, and start adding options. Options are meant to rake profit.

Finally, if someone is willing to pay, charge them for it. It's America, they do not charge $5 a ticket to go to the Super Bowl. Why?? Because demand drives the price to the $1000s.

All your evidence can be said about your favorites, Google, AMD, etc..

You simply are biased against Apple, and to a lesser extent Intel. Every one of your blogs related to either is evidence of that.

Hence my original point. Just waiting for you to take your usual shots at Apple. It's quite predictable.

quote: Google Inc. (GOOG) -- makers of the world's most used smartphone operating system and the world's most used search engine -- based itself in Ireland and has subsidiaries in the Caribbean and Luxembourg for more tax dodging gains.

Google told The Daily Mail that this scheme -- which many would call "tax dodging" -- is necessary in today's corporate atmosphere, as responsibility to shareholders. States a Google spokesperson, "We have an obligation to our shareholders to set up a tax-efficient structure, and our present structure is compliant with the tax rules in all the countries where we operate."

quote: The President's support of Google also raises some eyebrows given Google's clever use of the "Double Irish" and "Dutch Sandwich" (legal) tax evasion strategies, funneling money through Ireland, the Netherlands and Bermuda, courtesy of federal loopholes, to avoid paying federal income taxes on its profits. These strategies reportedly saved Google $1B USD in 2011 and cut the company's effective tax rate to 18.8 percent, far less than the standard 35-40 most small businesses pay on earnings.

Google officially raised almost a million dollars for the President's election bid.

Ah this old chestnut again:

quote: All your evidence can be said about your favorites, Google, AMD, etc..

You simply are biased against Apple, and to a lesser extent Intel. Every one of your blogs related to either is evidence of that.

Dude - do you really believe the silly stuff that you type? That there is some dark nefarious reasons that Apple takes everyone else to the cleaners? When the real reason is just so simple: Apple are just better at what they do than anyone else.

Apple make better stuff that people want more, they make premium products that sell at premium prices but in huge numbers. They control their costs, manage their supply chain, use their cash and they limit their SKUs better than anyone else. Apple has the best retail operation on the planet, the best value stack attached to their devices, the healthiest, largest and most profitable developer community. Apple's brand reputation is sky high and with good reason as Apple consistently top surveys of consumer satisfaction and customer service.

None of this is hidden, it's all there in plain view. It's not some sinister plot, some evil manoeuvre, it's just an American company that is astonishingly well managed. Apple is the product that Steve Jobs spent most of his time and most of his energy on designing and shaping, the impact of that work will be felt for years to come.

quote: Dude - do you really believe the silly stuff that you type? That there is some dark nefarious reasons that Apple takes everyone else to the cleaners? When the real reason is just so simple: Apple are just better at what they do than anyone else.

You are correct. Apple is better than anyone else at doing what they do best....take people to the cleaners.